For Okinawa Marine, LQA benefit turns into debtor’s nightmare

CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — Christopher Garcia couldn’t figure out why we was being called into the civilian human resources department in Okinawa.

It had been two years since he retired as a Marine gunnery sergeant and took a job as the lead defense travel administrator in the III Marine Expeditionary Force’s disbursing office. The transition had gone so well, his office had been recognized for excellence.

But, it turns out, things were too good to be true.

Despite being promised a housing allowance when he was offered the job, the HR office was now telling him that the interpretation of the rules had changed and he no longer qualified.

Then, he essentially was handed a bill for more than $100,000.

“Regrettably, the previous determination of your eligibility for [living quarters allowance] was erroneous,” CHRO Director Deborah Summers wrote in a letter handed to Garcia on Jan. 20. “Because you have been erroneously receiving LQA payments, you are required to repay the LQA you have received.”

Garcia was in shock.

Not only was he on the hook for two years’ rent and utilities, but his housing allowance payments would stop immediately. He said it would be nearly impossible to afford his house now, and his family — with five children living at home — had just celebrated Christmas.

“When I see what this is doing to my family … It’s the betrayal of a loyal individual,” Garcia said. “I don’t have the disposable income to just throw down another $8,000 on a move.”

Five other individuals have recently gotten similar notifications, Marine officials said — a replay of the scenario that tormented nearly 700 Defense Department employees in 2013.

Those employees, mostly in Europe, were determined to have been granted LQA in error. Other civilians were lured to positions overseas only to be told that the crucial benefit was being taken away. Army reservists were caught in a similar housing allowance trap.

The Defense Department blamed bureaucratic errors and misinterpretation of regulations, and in nearly every case, it was determined that the workers were not at fault. Yet the burden of resolving the issue fell squarely on their shoulders. At the time, the DOD said it would likely waive the workers’ debt, but first they would have to sign a waiver acknowledging the debt existed. Many were reluctant to do say, saying it would put them on the hook for the money.

In the aftermath, all who have applied for the waiver have had the debts waived. The fight went well into 2014.

As it sought to resolve the issue, the Defense Department ordered an audit of all employees hired locally in Europe and granted a one-year reprieve on the benefit for those found eligible there and at other overseas locations.

Defense Department and U.S. Forces Japan officials declined to say why the issue has come up again, referring questions to the Marine Corps. The Marines said the Navy’s Office of Civilian Human Resources and the Marine Corps Installations Pacific Civilian Human Resources Office have been offering assistance to those affected on a case-by-case basis.

They declined to comment on Garcia’s case.

“We are in communication with Headquarters Marine Corps to seek further assistance in this matter,” a Marine spokesman said in a statement to Stars and Stripes.

Garcia has been told he should apply to have the debt waived once the bill arrives, but he said he sees that as little solace.

Garcia’s odyssey began in June 2012, when the Marines thought they had found a new lead defense travel administrator for the Pacific region. Emails and letters provided to Stars and Stripes, however, indicate officials were dismayed when the top candidate withdrew because of ineligibility for a housing allowance.

The officials called the position “mission critical,” saying it was historically difficult to fill because special skills were needed. Those skills might be found locally — in the retiring Marines who had experience with the Defense Travel System, for example. But regulations state that applicants who are not living in the United States at the time they apply for the job are not eligible for housing allowance without a waiver. The position had been budgeted for a housing allowance and moving expenses from the U.S. if be offered to a stateside hire, the documents say.

Marine officials did not want make the same mistake again. When Garcia was flagged as the next top candidate, according to Marine Corps documents, he would not accept the position without the housing benefit. And officials feared future problems filling the position if the benefit wasn’t offered, the documents say.

In the Marine Corps’ application for a waiver, the benefit was called a “recruitment incentive,” and officials were pleased that they would save the expenses of moving a family from the States because Garcia’s was already on Okinawa.

The waiver was endorsed by the chiefs of staff for the commanding generals of the 3rd Marine Logistics Group and III MEF. It was approved by J.C. Wright, chief of staff for Marine Corps Installations Pacific, in September 2012.

“Mr. Garcia meets the eligibility requirements,” Wright wrote in his letter to the deputy director of MCIPAC civilian human resources. He affirmed it was in “the Marine Corps’ interest” to approve the request.

Garcia, who is from Chicago, claims he even double-checked with those hiring him on his eligibility for the housing allowance because he saw what was happening in Europe. He was assured he qualified.

He got to work soon after, sporting Marine Corps cuff links as he traded his cammies for a shirt and tie. He sunk his teeth into the position, he said. He and his wife Natalie continued to raise their five kids in their Okinawa City home. The position was to run through October 2016.

Now, he has been told that because his case cropped up in a new audit, he doesn’t even qualify for the year of amnesty that many others were given.

With his rent for February unpaid, and his landlord already seeking payment, Garcia said he is close to breaking down. His children are days away from being forced out from their stable environment and possibly away from their school and friends.

This looming upheaval was evident on the faces of his older children as they gathered at the family home last Wednesday evening. The mood was somber as they discussed the path forward. Garcia’s smaller children played nearby, seemingly unaware of what was happening.

It all makes his blood boil.

“How can the DOD continue to treat people like this?” he said, his voice wavering. “All said and done, other than maybe a year and a half, I’ve given almost 26 years to the federal government as an active-duty Marine and as a Marine Corps civilian.”

Veterans’ organizations were sympathetic.

“Changing the rules in the middle of an overseas assignment will not produce any faith in the civilian personnel management system going forward,” Veterans of Foreign Wars spokesman Joe Davis wrote in a statement to Stars and Stripes.

“The VFW along with the overseas combatant commanders back in 2013 strongly supported grandfathering [LQA] payments until the end of current overseas employment contracts. It was and still is the right thing to do for dedicated DOD employees who are now under tremendous mental and financial stress because of a reinterpretation of regulations that also doesn’t benefit the government, which must now eat the added cost of an out-of-cycle move to bring in a replacement who will receive LQA.”

burke.matt@stripes.com

Ukrainian separatist advance forces mass

SVYATOHIRSK, Ukraine — As fighting escalates around the town Debaltseve in eastern Ukraine, a growing wave of civilians are fleeing their homes, taking the risk of being struck by stray projectiles on their way, and often leaving family members behind.

Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said that around 1,000 of Debaltseve's residents have been evacuated in the past days. Many end up at a government-owned holiday camp in the resort town of Svyatohirsk, where the sound of artillery fire is replaced with an uneasy quiet.

"With every slam of the door or whistle, we are reminded of the explosions and everything that happened. But we are getting used to the quiet, which is an unusual feeling," said Ira Akhmutova, 15, who left Debaltseve together with her mother and the few things they could carry.

"My dad and my grandmother are still in Debaltseve. Telephone connections are very poor and I am very worried about them," Akhmutova said.

Fighting has been most intense in the last week around the government-held town, a strategically valuable railway hub that has been almost entirely encircled by rebel forces. Only one road remains open for escape, and that has been targeted by artillery fire.

Ukraine's government said Sunday that 13 of its troops were killed and another 20 wounded in a day of fighting across the east.

Among those who left their homes to go to Svyatohirsk is Galina Maksimenko, 63, and one of her granddaughters.

After one episode of heavy shelling, she recalls pleading with her late son's wife to take her two daughters away from Debaltseve on a government bus for evacuees. The daughter-in-law refused, saying she wanted to remain near her husband's grave.

"I begged her, said to her: 'You have to save the living. You cannot bring Andrei back. Escape with your children,'" Maksimenko said.

And still, the daughter-in-law refused to budge.

"So my husband grabbed my coat and that of one of my granddaughters and locked us out in the street. And then he shouted: 'Save this one. If they refuse to be saved, at least try save one of them," Maksimenko said.

Busses are being dispatched daily to Debaltseve by Ukrainian authorities to carry out as many civilians as possible.

Vasily Stayetsky, deputy chairman of Ukraine state emergency service, told The Associated Press that a projectile crashed Sunday by the town hall, which now serves as a mustering point for those wishing to leave.

"Six people were wounded — Three were civilians, one was a soldier, and another two were representatives of the state emergency services," Stayetsky said.

Debaltseve has been without power, water, household gas and heating for more than 10 days. Only the relatively mild weather has lightened the extreme discomfort. Mobile phone signals waver between sporadic and nonexistent.

In a Svyatohirsk camp recreation room, one six-year old boy, Sergei, filled in a coloring book and casually told of how a shell fell by a shop in Debaltseve. He said he couldn't tell if it was a Grad or an Uragan rocket.

Prospects for a settlement between the warring sides looked dimmer than ever after negotiations in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, collapsed amid acrimony Saturday.

Ukraine's envoy at the talks, former President Leonid Kuchma, told Interfax-Ukraine news agency that rebel representatives threatened to renew full-scale hostilities along the entire line of contact between the opposing forces. Kuchma said separatists also demanded to redraw a division line agreed by government and rebel forces in September.

In statements following the talks, rebel officials did not address any specific demands, but accused Ukraine of acting in bad faith and pursuing offensive maneuvers against their forces and civilians under their jurisdiction. In Donetsk, the main rebel-held city, three civilians were killed and four wounded in shelling, the city administration said.

French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke by telephone with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Sunday, a day after a similar call with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Merkel's office said the German, French and Ukrainian leaders voiced disappointment at the failure of Saturday's talks and called on Russia to use its influence with the separatists to resume the negotiations.

The conflict in east Ukraine has claimed more than 5,100 lives and displaced more than 900,000 people since it began in April, according to U.N. estimates.

In the capital, Kiev, about 60 Debaltseve residents arrived Sunday to take part in a protest outside the Russian Embassy. An adjacent garden was turned into a symbolic cemetery, with wooden crosses erected in memory of the 30 civilians killed by shelling in the southeastern city of Mariupol in late January.

Plaques on the crosses said they were "killed by Russian occupiers."

"Russia is conducting an undeclared war in Ukraine," said Yevgeny Chebotarev, who met people arriving by train from Debaltseve and was helping them find shelter. "Today it is obvious that behind the DNR and LNR (the Donetsk and Luhansk self-proclaimed republics) stand Russian troops and Russian weapons, whose victims are Ukrainian civilians."

Russia denies sending arms and troops to the rebels, who claim to rely solely on military equipment poached from the Ukrainian army. But the separatist forces have deployed vast quantities of powerful weapons, much of which military experts say are not even in Ukraine's arsenal.

___

Yuras Karmanau in Kiev, Ukraine, contributed to this report.

Current Ukraine tactics can’t defeat Putin

The Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny recently said that were it not for Western economic sanctions, Russian tanks would already have swept west to the port city of Odessa, occupying a huge swath of southern Ukraine and cutting off the rest of the country from the Black Sea. He’s probably right, yet it won’t count for much if Ukraine’s government doesn’t take advantage of the respite sanctions have provided by changing course.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has in recent weeks rekindled the war in eastern Ukraine, and it’s important to understand the role that Ukrainian actions have played in this. It’s equally important to recognize that sanctions can’t defeat Putin; they can only make him more cautious and open to a settlement.

It was just last September that Putin initiated the Minsk cease-fire agreement, halting his tanks after they had reversed many of the gains Ukraine’s military had made against eastern separatists over the summer. And it’s a fair assumption that Europe’s threat to impose heavier economic sanctions influenced his decision to stop his advance.

Putin had demonstrated that Ukraine’s military simply isn’t capable of standing up to Russian regulars, and that his tanks could indeed roll on to Odessa if he chose to give the order. In return for stopping, though, he expected Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to sue for a political settlement of the conflict, beyond the localized Minsk cease-fire.

Instead, Poroshenko had Ukraine’s parliament rescind a law that had committed the country to military neutrality and announced its formal intention to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. This was a serious misstep that made a return to war all but inevitable. If one thing is clear in this contest, it is that Putin will not — and politically cannot — make peace without some form of public assurance that Ukraine won’t join NATO.

Another step Ukraine took after the Minsk deal was to build a defensive line around separatist territory. This it had to do. The city of Mariupol, the first stop on any Russian road to Odessa and Crimea, had been left defenseless before last summer’s Russian assault, and the Ukrainian government had a duty to remedy that. Nevertheless, the place where Ukraine’s military chose to dig in said a lot about whether its goal was purely to defend itself, or also to prepare to retake rebel-held areas by force. The decision to hold on to Donetsk airport at any cost, despite having agreed at Minsk that this would fall on the rebel side of the cease-fire line, suggested the latter.

Next, Ukraine trumpeted its efforts to resupply its forces with new weaponry from NATO members, including the U.S., which sent radar systems for guiding responsive fire at enemy artillery positions. This set the clock running for Putin to begin an assault before Ukraine’s military could be rearmed and retrained.

So it was that, as early as October, Russian armor was heading back into Ukraine. The rebels announced an offensive to take Mariupol and other towns, and it looked as if the war would start again. Collapsing oil prices intervened, and by November the front was relatively quiet again.

Yet this was unsustainable. Putin had still not blocked Ukraine from turning West. What’s more, he looked weak. And to make matters worse on that front, U.S. President Barack Obama, in his State of the Union address, portrayed him as defeated:

“Mr. Putin’s aggression, it was suggested, was a masterful display of strategy and strength. That’s what I heard from some folks. Well, today, it is America that stands strong and united with our allies, while Russia is isolated, with its economy in tatters.”

As fantasies go, this was right up there with George W. Bush’s “mission accomplished” boast after the initial invasion of Iraq. Putin hadn’t given up. And if Obama had the first inkling of Putin’s character, he would understand that the best way to push him to attack is to boast of beating him.

So Ukraine and its partners lost an opportunity this winter, even if it’s impossible to know whether Putin would himself have been willing to make the compromises needed for a settlement. It’s also hard to know how far Putin will let his tanks go this time. If he believes there will be no more sanctions, or decides it’s worth weathering them, Russian forces could take Mariupol, build a land corridor to Crimea or make the final push to Odessa.

Alternatively, he might merely help the rebels take the key positions — such as the Donetsk airport, the Debaltseve rail junction and the Luhansk power station — that they need to make their territory survivable, and then give Poroshenko another chance to sue for peace.

This is Putin’s war. He contrived it when his ally Viktor Yanukovych was driven from power in Ukraine, and he largely controls it. Yet so long as the U.S. and NATO aren’t willing to fight Russia over Ukraine (and they shouldn’t be), they should help Poroshenko understand that this conflict can end only with a settlement that involves politically painful Ukrainian concessions.

Such was the terrible squeeze that Georgia existed in for nearly two decades. Once Russia had secured control over separatist territories in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, it could demand a political settlement on its terms. When Georgia refused and tried to resolve the problem militarily, it was crushed. (NATO did not come to the rescue.)

It is understandable that Ukraine doesn’t want a super-sized Abkhazia or South Ossetia in eastern Ukraine, but it is also too late to stop Russia from creating one. The longer Poroshenko pretends to his people that Ukraine can seize Donetsk and Luhansk back by force, the bigger Ukraine’s Abkhazia will become and the more lives, sovereignty and wealth Ukraine will lose.

Marc Champion writes editorials on international affairs for Bloomberg View.

US soldier’s death a tale of war, terrorism hatched from afar

WASHINGTON (Tribune News Service) — The suicide bomber who killed Bryan E. Hall died alongside him.

But now, nearly six years after Hall was killed in Iraq, a Canadian resident charged with murder and conspiracy in the deaths of American soldiers, including Hall, is at the center of an unusual prosecution that’s crossing several borders.

“I was just so shocked that they were able to find this person,” Betty M. Hall, Bryan’s mother, said in a telephone interview. “It’s amazing to me that they can do something like that.”

After an extradition battle that reached the Canadian Supreme Court, Faruq Khalil Muhammad ‘Isa arrived in the United States and pleaded not guilty Jan. 24 in federal court in Brooklyn. In previous legal proceedings, he has challenged some evidence against him as being wrung out by torture.

The former Edmonton, Alberta, resident is being held without bond.

From afar, Betty Hall and her husband, John, a retired IRS agent, have followed ‘Isa’s case since his initial arrest by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in January 2011. Still living in Elk Grove, about 15 miles south of Sacramento, the Halls learned about ‘Isa’s extradition shortly before the Justice Department alerted the media on Jan. 23.

Underscoring the case’s high profile, it was announced with a statement by Attorney General Eric Holder. It is being prosecuted by the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Loretta E. Lynch, whose Senate confirmation hearing to replace Holder was this past Wednesday.

“To those who orchestrate violence against our citizens and our soldiers … there is no corner of the globe from which they can hide from the long reach of the law,” Lynch said in announcing the extradition.

The case, prosecutors advised a judge in a letter made public Thursday, is also “extraordinarily complex,” involving everything from “foreign wiretap intercepts” and “classified information” to “crime scene evidence collected in Iraq.”

A 71-year-old retired manager, Betty Hall said she has some “mixed emotions” about the latest legal developments. Serving justice, she suggested, can also unearth painful memories.

“I have put my son to rest,” she said, “and we’re moving forward.”

Bryan Hall, an Elk Grove, Calif., native, entered the Army after his 1994 graduation from Elk Grove High School and a stint at Cosumnes River College in Sacramento. On April 10, 2009, he was bringing up the rear in a five-vehicle convoy leaving Forward Operating Base Marez. A large dump truck roared past a checkpoint and detonated next to Hall’s vehicle, leaving a 60-foot crater.

Hall was 32 when he died. Four other soldiers with the 1st Battalion, 67th Armor Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, were killed with him.

Staff Sgt. Gary L. Woods Jr. was a music-loving 24-year-old from Lebanon Junction, Ky., about 80 miles west of Lexington. Sgt. Edward W. Forrest Jr., 25, of St. Louis was a married father of two. Cpl. Jason G. Pautsch, 20, of Davenport, Iowa, had graduated early from high school to enlist. Pfc. Bryce E. Gaultier was a 22-year-old medic and former water polo player from Cypress, Calif.

Hall was married and had a daughter, Addison. His body was brought home and buried at Pleasant Grove Cemetery in Elk Grove. Addison, now 7, is living in Northern California with Hall’s widow, Rachel.

The year before Bryan Hall graduated from high school, ‘Isa moved to Canada from his native Iraq. He eventually became a dual citizen of both countries.

In court documents, U.S. officials cited wiretaps and other sources to identify ‘Isa as a member of a network that transported fighters from Tunisia to Iraq for suicide missions.

The day after the 2009 bombing, according to the complaint, ‘Isa attributed the attack to “one of the Tunisian brothers.”

‘Isa also used code phrases like “marriage to 70 virgins” when referring to suicide attacks, according to the complaint, which included transcripts from intercepted emails.

“When I want to name the brothers, I say the farmers, because they plant metal and harvest metal and flesh,” ‘Isa wrote in a February 2010 email, according to the complaint.

Following his 2011 arrest, ‘Isa assented to a lengthy interview with investigators, which was videotaped.

In fighting extradition, ‘Isa alleged that he was denied access to a lawyer and that “U.S. investigative or enforcement personnel, or their Iraqi agents, inflicted torture” upon his brother and two other sources, the Court of Appeal of Alberta recounted in an August 2014 decision.

The brother elaborated that he was “beaten by Iraqi and U.S. forces for about seven days” while being questioned.

The Court of Appeal of Alberta concluded that while the torture allegations could conceivably be credible, a “considerable body” of other evidence supported the U.S. case against ‘Isa. In 2012, a lower-level Canadian judge had dismissed the torture allegations, declaring that the United States has “a well-established and historic position as a leader in human rights and procedural justice.”

Still, Canadian officials secured a Justice Department commitment not to seek the death penalty against ‘Isa as part of the extradition negotiations.

Chase Scolnick, a federal public defender assigned to represent ‘Isa, did not respond to a request for comment.

If convicted, ‘Isa faces a potential life sentence. Betty Hall says she is unlikely to attend the trial, explaining that there are some things she is “putting to rest,” but she may attend the sentencing if ‘Isa is convicted.

“I am so glad,” she said, ‘that he will be tried in the American courts.”

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©2015 McClatchy Washington Bureau

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Alcohol redefined as 'weapon' in sexual assault cases by prosecutors, military officials

(Tribune News Service) — The alcohol - rum, vodka, wine and hard cider - listed in the latest allegation of sexual assault between Air Force Academy cadets is being viewed in a new way by the military and civilian prosecutors.

Alcohol for years has been seen as a contributing factor in rapes, and it is thought to play a role in nearly half of the almost 6,000 sexual assaults reported across the Defense Department last year. But the role alcohol plays has been succinctly redefined.

"It's a weapon," said Katharina Booth, chief trial deputy and chief of the Boulder District Attorney's sexual assault unit.

Booth said the change comes from the realization that perpetrators are more likely to use alcohol to subdue their sexual assault victims than guns, threats and fists.

Alcohol's ties to sexual assault came into focus again in January with the arrest of Air Force Academy junior Cadet Daniel Ryerson. He's charged in state court with sexually assaulting an inebriated female classmate after a night of party-hopping in Boulder on Nov. 1. Ryerson, 21, who police say is linked to the case by DNA evidence, is due in court later this month.

In a December Pentagon report, the military calls alcohol a weapon in its latest sexual assault prevention guidance for commanders, echoing a statement made by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel in May.

Hagel ordered a review of alcohol policies in a bid to quell sexual assaults.

"They include a department-wide review of institutional alcohol policies, which will be revised where necessary to address risks that alcohol poses to others, including the risk that alcohol is used as a weapon against victims in a predatory way," Hagel said.

At the Air Force Academy and other military bases, workers who serve alcohol in clubs are being told to watch for those who would use booze as a weapon, said Lt. Col. Kirstin Reimann, an Air Force spokeswoman at the Pentagon.

Another step requires commanders to "work with community partners on responsible alcohol sales practices and bystander intervention training for alcohol servers," Reimann wrote in an email to The Gazette.

A 2013 Pentagon report on sexual assaults at service academies showed alcohol played a role in at least a third of incidents.

"However, alcohol likely plays a much larger role than what is depicted in reported incidents," the report said.

A newer report on military academy sexual assaults is due out this month after an unexplained month-long delay.

Last week, academy leaders sat through a presentation on sexual assault and the new view of alcohol's role, according to the academy website.

The speaker, Anne Munch, co-developer of the Air Force's new bystander intervention program to prevent sexual assault, told the academy brass that old views of alcohol put too much focus on the victims of sexual assault.

"For the same reason that a robber chooses a drunk victim (over a sober victim), a rapist will also choose a drunk victim," she said, according the academy's website.

Colorado Springs Police Sgt. John Koch said the sex assaults his detectives investigate frequently involve drunken victims.

Under military and Colorado law, victims who have passed out or are too drunk to render judgment cannot consent to sex - which is a common defense in cases involving booze.

While Koch advises responsible drinking, he tells victims that a mistake with a bottle can never justify rape.

"No mater what you did, it doesn't excuse someone victimizing you," he said.

But no matter how much work is done to change how authorities see the relationship between alcohol and sexual assault, victims remain far less likely to report attacks if they were drinking.

"This combination of alcohol and sex assault is often a huge factor in the underreporting of sexual assault," Booth said. "There is a ton of misplaced self-blame there."

Sexual assault has long been cited as the most commonly unreported crime. The Pentagon celebrated its December report that shows as many as 24 percent of military sexual assault victims were reporting the crime, up from 11 percent a year earlier.

Past reports on sexual assault in military academies, including Air Force, have cited alcohol use as a key factor in the reluctance of victims to seek charges.

To combat alcohol issues, the academy, led by superintendent Lt. Gen. Michelle Johnson, is relying on cadets to keep an eye on each other. Bystander intervention, a concept cadets are trained on, requires them to intercede when a classmate is intoxicated or otherwise at risk for harm including sexual assault.

"Don't drink alone," the academy cautions on its website. "Have a wingman, or better yet two, and know where they are at all times."

Cadets took a pledge last fall to intercede if they see a classmate, or anyone else, at risk of sexual assault. Other work includes educating cadets on responsible drinking and giving more help to victims.

In the recent Boulder case, both Ryerson and the cadet victim described a night of drinking in Boulder in statements to investigators. They described drinking before heading to the parties - splitting a bottle of wine and consuming one hard cider each, police said.

During the parties, where police say Ryerson gained entry from strangers by offering alcohol, the woman told officers she consumed several drinks containing hard alcohol supplied by Ryerson.

A witness at one party, who didn't know either cadet, said that Ryerson escorted the stumbling female cadet into a bathroom where the two were behind a locked door for 20 minutes, the affidavit said. Witnesses say Ryerson later "carried" the unconscious female cadet from the party, police wrote.

The victim referred to Ryerson as her "wingman" during a sexual assault exam at a hospital, according to court documents.

"The issues of binge drinking and sexual assault are complex, societal challenges that all colleges and universities across the nation struggle with. The Academy, like all other college campuses, is not immune to these national problems, and we remain committed to addressing and eliminating both sexual harassment and sexual assault," academy spokesman Lt. Col. Brus Vidal wrote in an email response to questions from the Gazette.

He outlined a litany of programs to designed to fight sexual assault, alcohol abuse and to bolster care for victims.

"Moreover, the Academy remains firm in its commitment to vigorously combat sexual assaults and harassment through the very best awareness and prevention training and base-wide initiatives," he said.

Johnson's push for bystander training has garnered praise from the school's Board of Visitors, an advisory body that reports to the Pentagon.

"I support the leadership efforts of General Johnson to train the best possible next generation of military leaders," U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, a Colorado Springs Republican who sits on the academy board, said in a statement Friday. "Sexual assault is a serious crime and those who break the rules and regulations of the Academy must be dealt with accordingly."

The academy has stiff penalties for underage drinking and other alcohol missteps including drunken driving, which can result in courts-martial or dismissal. The academy says the number of incidents involving cadets misbehaving with alcohol has plunged - down 79 percent since 2010.

As warnings grow louder about the role alcohol plays in military sexual assaults, the academy has granted its cadets more freedom than the school has offered in its 60 year history.

Seniors, for instance, are free to leave the campus at the end of the classroom day. Juniors, sophomores and freshmen get more control of their time, including more liberal off-campus time, under the policy adopted in recent years.

Johnson has said the increased free-time away from the school has given cadets more responsibility, and it comes with more accountability

"We want them to be adults," she said.

But cadets are young adults and issues involving troops and alcohol have given the military headaches for decades, said retired Maj. Gen. Irv Halter, former vice-superintendent at the academy.

"We have a culture that thinks getting high or drunk is the ultimate use of the weekend, you can quote me on that," said Halter.

To curb alcohol in one unit he commanded, Halter restricted time off for airmen if anyone in the wing had an alcohol offense.

"It was pretty draconian but it got the situation under control," Halter said,

The problem for commanders like Johnson, Halter said, is giving cadets enough freedom to learn responsibility and enough structure to keep them out of trouble.

Another issue for Johnson: Unlike other college students, who are typically portrayed as poverty-stricken, cadets get a paycheck and have few expenses - making a weekend of parties a financially feasible option.

"I shake my head because it seems to be an intractable problem," Halter said. "We as a society need to figure out how to tell people that going and getting silly drunk on the weekends is not in your best interest."

In a meeting with faculty last month, Johnson said the academy is pushing cadets to "make good choices."

She emphasized that immunizing potential victims with tools to prevent problems and training others to intervene remains the best option.

Picking out the predators in the 4,000-member cadet wing before incidents occur is close to impossible, she explained.

"We don't read minds," Johnson said,

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©2015 The Gazette (Colorado Springs, Colo.)

Visit The Gazette (Colorado Springs, Colo.) at www.gazette.com

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Horror in Japan as video purports to show hostage beheaded

TOKYO — Appalled and saddened by news of journalist Kenji Goto's purported beheading by Islamic State extremists, Japan ordered heightened security precautions Sunday and said it would persist with its non-military support for fighting terrorism.

The failure to save Goto raised fears for the life of a Jordanian fighter pilot also held by the militant group that controls about a third of both Syria and Iraq. Unlike some earlier messages delivered in the crisis, the video that circulated online late Saturday purporting to show a militant beheading Goto did not mention the pilot.

Jordan renewed an offer Sunday to swap an al-Qaida prisoner for the pilot, Lt. Muath al-Kaseasbeh, who was seized after his F-16 crashed near the Islamic State group's de facto capital, Raqqa, Syria, in December.

Government spokesman Mohammed al-Momani told The Associated Press that "we are still ready to hand over" Sajida al-Rishawi, who faces death by hanging for her role in triple hotel bombings in Jordan in 2005.

Al-Momani also said his country spared no effort to free Goto.

The slaying of Goto, a freelance reporter whose work focused on refugees, children and other victims of war, shocked this country, which until now had not become directly embroiled in the fight against the militants.

"I feel indignation over this immoral and heinous act of terrorism," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters after convening an emergency Cabinet meeting.

"When I think of the grief of his family, I am left speechless," he said. "We are filled with deep regret."

Threats from the Islamic State group prompted an order for tighter security at airports and at Japanese facilities overseas, such as embassies and schools, government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said.

He said it would be "inappropriate" to comment on the status of the Jordanian pilot.

With no updates for days, al-Kaseasbeh's family appealed to the government for information on his situation. But for Goto's family and friends, the beheading shattered any hopes for his rescue.

"Kenji has died, and my heart is broken. Facing such a tragic death, I'm just speechless," Goto's mother Junko Ishido told reporters.

"I was hoping Kenji might be able to come home," said Goto's brother, Junichi Goto, in a separate interview. "I was hoping he would return and thank everyone for his rescue, but that's impossible, and I'm bitterly disappointed."

According to his friends and family, Goto traveled to Syria in late October to try to save Haruna Yukawa, 42, who was taken hostage in August and who was shown as purportedly killed in an earlier video.

"He was kind and he was brave," said Yukawa's father Shoichi. "He tried to save my son."

"It's utterly heartbreaking," he said, crying and shaking. "People killing other people — it's so deplorable. How can this be happening?"

Abe vowed to continue providing humanitarian aid to countries fighting the Islamic State extremists. Bowing to terrorist intimidation would prevent Japan from providing medical assistance and other aid it views as necessary for helping to restore stability in the region, he and other officials say.

But the government spokesman, Suga, said Abe would not link the hostage crisis to his efforts to expand Japan's military role in "collective self-defense" with the U.S. and other allies.

The White House released a statement in which President Barack Obama also condemned "the heinous murder" and praised Goto's reporting, saying he "courageously sought to convey the plight of the Syrian people to the outside world."

The White House said that while it isn't confirming the authenticity of the video itself, it has confirmed that Goto has been slain. Japan also has deemed the video highly likely to be authentic, said the defense minister, Gen Nakatani.

Highlighted by militant sympathizers on social media sites, the video bore the symbol of the Islamic State group's al-Furqan media arm.

Though it could not be immediately independently verified by The Associated Press, it conformed to other beheading videos by the group.

Many Japanese expressed dismay over the news.

"I feel so sad and angry. Why didn't the government rescue Kenji?" said Mayuko Tamura, 31, a pediatrician who along with her husband and their 8-month-old baby joined a few dozen people gathered in front of Abe's official residence Sunday afternoon to show their sympathy for the hostages.

In Jordan late Saturday night, relatives and supporters of the pilot held a candlelit vigil inside a family home in Karak, al-Kaseasbeh's hometown in southern Jordan.

We "decided to hold this protest to remind the Jordanian government of the issue of the imprisoned pilot Muath al-Kaseasbeh," said the pilot's brother Jawdat al-Kaseasbeh, holding picture of Muath with a caption: "We are all Muath."

Al-Kaseasbeh's uncle, Yassin Rawashda, said the family just wants to be kept informed.

"We want to know how the negotiations are going ... in a positive direction or not. And we want the family to be (involved) in the course of negotiations," he said.

Jordan and Japan reportedly conducted indirect negotiations with the militants through Iraqi tribal leaders, but late on Friday the Japanese envoy sent to Amman to work on the hostage crisis reported a deadlock in those efforts.

The hostage drama began more than a week ago when the militants threatened to kill Goto and Yukawa in 72 hours unless Japan paid $200 million.

Later, the militants' demand shifted to seeking the release of al-Rishawi, who survived the 2005 attack that killed 60 people when her explosive belt failed to detonate in the worst terror attack in Jordan's history.

The deadline for that exchange passed without word, leaving the families of the pilot and journalist waiting in agony. Al-Rishawi has close family ties to the Iraq branch of al-Qaida, a precursor of the Islamic State group.

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Laub reported from Amman, Jordan.

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Associated Press writers Jon Gambrell in Cairo, Najib Abu Jobein in Karak, Jordan, and Mari Yamaguchi, Yuri Kageyama, Noriko Kitano, Kaori Hitomi, Emily Wang, Miki Toda in Tokyo contributed to this report.

Kinnick wraps up regular season with another win

TOKYO – Nile C. Kinnick continued its torrid run by capturing Saturday’s last regular-season wrestling tournament, the final tune-up for the Red Devils who next turn their attention to the postseason.

Kinnick placed first with 106 points at the Kanto Wrestling Invitational at Christian Academy Japan. St. Mary’s placed second with 72 points, including a sweep of the top four slots at 115 pounds. American School In Japan finished third with 33 points.

The Red Devils took seven individual titles to five for the Titans, reversing the outcome of the “Beast of the Far East” Tournament three weeks ago when St. Mary’s led the podium count.

“We scored a lot of points and did very well,” Kinnick coach Gary Wilson said. “I think we came out with much better energy and I thought we fought well in every match.”

Energy and enthusiasm were the keys Wilson said he had his team focus on after he called out his team for being “half-awake” in last week’s DODDS Japan finals at Yokota.

“It was a total team effort today,” Wilson said. “We came out strong from our first match and held that intensity all the way through the championship matches.”

Scoring titles for the Red Devils were Lucas Wirth (101 pounds), Max Nicely (135), Brady Yoder (148), Ian Olson (158), Dre Paylor (168), Nicolas Alvarez (215) and Chris Deibel (heavyweight).

The Red Devils completed a regular-season sweep. They won all four tournaments they entered and had a 12-0 dual-meet record.

Now come two postseason tournaments in back-to-back weeks. The Kanto finals are slated for Saturday at St. Mary’s and the Far East tournament Feb. 12-14 at Osan Air Base in South Korea.

While the Japan and Kanto Plain teams have four regular-season tournaments in hand, Kadena spent Saturday getting its first taste of tournament wrestling when it hosted the Okinawa Open on Saturday. Kubasaki, its opponent Saturday, also entered the “Beast” and was getting its second tournament of the season.

For the two teams, it was valuable preparation, coaches said, even though many of those competing had faced off before in dual meets.

“It lets us get a feel for how the tournament lifestyle is,” said Kadena’s Dominic Santanelli, who won at 180 pounds. “To experience multiple matches, go non-stop, get to know other wrestlers, meet some new styles and techniques. It’s very good.”

For Ricky Salinas of Kadena, such tournaments are old hat, having wrestled parts of two seasons for E.J. King in Japan, a regular participant in DODDS Japan and the “Beast” tournament. Salinas transferred to Kadena in December.

“This being my first tournament here, it brought back a lot of memories,” said Salinas, who won at 168 pounds – and entertained onlookers between bouts by juggling a Chinese yo-yo. “It’s good that these guys are getting experience for Far East.”

Regular-season wrestling hasn’t completely finished in the Pacific. DODDS Korea stages its last regular-season tri-dual on Saturday at Osan. Seoul American has won every dual meet thus far this season.

A Falcons team of a different sort, boys basketball, welcomed E.J. King to Falcon Gym for the first time in the regular season on Saturday. While Seoul American won 69-35 to remain unbeaten in 13 games, Falcons coach Jim Davis said the Cobras bring much to the table.

“They have some size. They’re going to present some matchup problems for a couple of teams” at the Far East Division II Tournament next month at Matthew C. Perry. “They have some guys who could play football if E.J. King had a program.”

It was the first meeting between the teams in 12½ years. On Friday, Seoul American’s girls routed E.J. King 51-8 in the first meeting ever between the two teams.

Staff writer Dave Ornauer in Okinawa contributed to this report.

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